PHL FO Schedule
 

Greetings,

Might be ending up as a Junior FO at the PHL base for the airline. Can anyone share a few screenshots of their schedule so I can get an idea of what they look like? I am not sure that goes against company pollicy or what no so I will close the thread if so. However, just trying to get an idea for what my 1st year off training will look like. I live lukily 1 hour a 52 mins from the company entrence at PHL.

4 days on 2 days off. Maybe an occasional 3 days on or off. Early on you can plan for your 4 days to be over weekends, and/or comprised of two two day trips back to back then 2 off.

Thank you for the intel. Does that mean 4 nights away or 3 nights away when you say "4 days on"? Looking forward to it either way. I don't mind grinding it out.

PHL generally has commutable four-day trips, meaning you start on day one around noon and end on day four before 3pm. Min days off is 12, and when you’re senior enough to get a line you will have scheduled trips broken up by 2 or 3 days off. However, you’re going to be on reserve for the first few months. And those schedules are quite different. Lots of 5-day stretches of being on-call beginning at 7am, and need to be in the secure side of the terminal in 2 hours. Lastly, driving to PHL you need to account at least 30mins to ride the bus from the employee parking lot in to the terminal. Drive time from your house being just about two hours you’ll probably need a crash pad while you’re on reserve. Schedules having gotten better over the years, but it’s important to manage expectations. Reserve can suck.

This is a timely thread as I have a CJO and will start class in May. I'm 30 minutes drive from PHL, so the reserve period doesn't bother me since I can easily get there as long as I'm close to home on the on-call days. It sounds like a 4 day trip is 3 nights away from home for someone living in base. I've seen the route map and would be curious if any of legs during someon'es a 4 day trip would actually wind up back in base overnight, or would one expect to be overnighting in outstations? Or totally random? There would obviously be a mix of equipment overnighting in outstations for the early morning feeders into the hubs, along with morning flights from the hubs to the outstations.

Over on ATP, some pilots share their scheudle in a format like below. Obviously everyone's mileage varies, but it's an interesting view of a month in the life be it a lineholder or reseve.

1 - AAA-BBB-CCC (overnight)
2 - CCC-DDD-AAA
3 - AAA-EEE-FFF (overnight)
4 - FFF-GGG-AAA
5 - off
6- off
....

Thank you for this. I live down here in DE. I am planning on sailing my sailboat up to PHL to use as a "Crashpad" during my reserve peroid... Lot's of cheap marinas all near the airport. Anyone have a space heater I can borrow HA...

One more ? You say we need to be there by 0700. What time does one come OFF reserve generally and get the green light to go home for the night?

Otterbox said you may begin on-call at 7am, not get there by 7am. That means you could get called at 9am to show up by 11am to start your trip. You could be on earlier on call (e.g. 3am and get called to show up by 5am). I'll let someone else who's at PDT to elaborate on the on-call shifts. I think i heard soemthign like 3am - 11am and 11am - 7pm. So if you do early on call, you'll be released by lunch time and be free for the rest of day in that example, though if you're on call starting at 3am the next day, you'll have an early bed time.

our reserve availability periods default to 0700 start. Yes, scheduling shifts them a bit after your first day but that’s not too typical. FAR part 117 governs the length of the reserve period which is 14 hours for short call. Get familiar with 117, you’ll need it.

for guys asking about schedules: none of our schedules plan to be back in base for overnights. All overnights are in outstations. PHL and CLT generally come back to base for turns throughout the trip though, MDT you’re just out in the system for four whole days.

PHL FO right now. We have 106 bidding, 82 lines in April.

Expect almost all lines to be 4 days on (3 nights away), 3 days off. For 12-13 days off per month. Some lines will have a 3-day, followed by a 2-day. You won't see more than 14 days off basically ever.

Seniority only lets you pick where the work days fall on your calendar. Very little, if any, "sweet schedule for the senior people" here.

How many days off can you get if you trip touch? I'm coming from the 91/135 world so I also have no clue what trip touching is. Is that basically working back to back trips to get more days off inbetween?

Great reply. Here's another question. Are you enjoying it for the most part? 12-13 days off a month seems pretty reasonable. What time do you usually start day 1 and end day 4?

Hard to touch trips with 135 regs. You could try to drop and pick-up but it isn't easy. I would say almost impossible to get more than 5 days off in a row regardless of what you do.

start and end depends. some trips are "commutable" so you start around noon on day 1, end early afternoon day 4, but expect every day to start earlier and earlier to make that happen.

other trips will start around the same time each day

you will be able to look for early starts or late starts but even within the course of a month, one trip may be early starts, another trip can be late starts.

What does a junior FO reserve schedule look like? Is it still bid as a line, but just without actual trips?
Example:
Day 1: OFF
Day 2: RSRV
Day 3: RSRV
Day 4: RSRV
Day 5: RSRV
Day 6: OFF
Day 7: OFF
etc....

Or something different? If i'm not called up on days 1-4, would I then be given opportuntiy to pick up trips on my days off? If so how would that affect my future RSRV days on the schedule?

Once holding a line, I read up thread that weekends will be common for junior. That's actually what i prefer. A 4 day trip running Thur-Sun or Fri-Mon would be perfect (in my world). Even better would be early starts on all 4 days. If we're at outstations each night, and those have 5-6am departures the next morning back to CLT/PHL, I'd expect wer'e done flying those days by dinner time to give ample time for rest to return to airport ~4am. I'm a long time business traveler and always enjoyed the early flights mainly because they're the least likely to be delayed.

Are you actually flying on reserve or sitting in a hotel/crashpad days at a time?

On reserve, home based 30 mintues from home to airport.

I start class next month, curious how buliding your schedule works. Are you able to swap reserve and off days?
Assuming I will be PHL based, are people being used most of their reserve days?
Lastly, does PDT have a bid for first/last to be called?

If you have a line you’ll be given 48 hours to swap your schedule with opentime trips, all based in seniority. If you get a Relief (REL) line (partial reserve and some trips) you have to wait until it’s published. Reserve (RSV) gets what they get but both REL and RSV can ask for a set of 4 days, or 2 and 2, off when bidding. That of course is based on seniority and the needs for RSV coverage. Normally you can’t swap trips for RSV days and vice versa. PHL and CLT also have active reserve (8 hours) up to 8 days a month that you have to sit at the crew room and do
whatever…

Little thread revival, any pay treatments for the “active reserve?” Also, any PHL crews able to chime in on what % of the bid package is turns? Any premium trips available?

Buddy is starting soon and got curious myself. TIA

There is no extra pay for the active "RAS" shifts.. little to zero premium these days as well staffed. Occassionally you might see a bit of the FO side as they catch up with hiring but virtually nothing on the CA side now.

and very few single turns, in fact these can not be picked up when breaking a trip (has to include a RON)

Again occasionally you will see one in open time. cheers

copy thanks. Again, just out of curiosity, what are the common overnights out of the PHL base? Never flew for red white and blue so my guess would be the domiciles but I honestly have no clue.

you won’t overnight in the domiciles ever besides mdt. I’ve had 1 CLT overnight due to my trip sequence getting messed up due to wx. AGS ROA RIC GSO TRI ALB SYR BUF YYZ BGR Nothing glamorous we’re a regional

Since most, if not all, of the out stations have very early departures(5-6am) to make the morning connection banks at the hubs, you will find yourself in one of those cities during a trip. That means very early wake up times (~4am) if you came in on the mid day arrival the day prior. If you came in on an evening arrival you'll get to sleep in a little bit longer....

thx guys that’s what I’m looking for. Appreciated and passed along

filler